Forms of Literary Nonfiction in The Orchid Thief

Jyoti
ENC 1102
Professor Myers
Interactive Essay Assignment
958
7/15/2008

Forms of Literary Nonfiction in The Orchid Thief

The Orchid Thief, a literary nonfiction work by Susan Orlean, is an account of her interaction with an orchid poacher in Florida. “The Millionaire’s Hothouse” is where Orlean introduces John Laroche, the person accused of stealing orchids from the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve (6). She also describes Florida where the trial of Laroche is taking place for the alleged theft of orchids (Orlean 6-7). The three nonfiction forms evident in this book are a sense of place, personal experience, and biographical sketch. Through these forms, the author keeps her readers engrossed in her book by giving them a clear sense of Florida, her experience in Florida with Laroche, and a vivid sketch of Laroche.

Orlean enraptures her readers to Florida, using a sense of place, a literary nonfiction form. A sense of place paints a verbal pictorial (Minot 9). This pictorial is evident when the author describes Naples in Florida, the place of Laroche’s trial, as “warm and gummy” (Orlean 7). The warmth and humidity of Florida is instantaneously clear to the readers with this depiction. She saw “thick thunderclouds trolling along the edge of the sky” from her plane and she observes the “storm explode over the water” from her hotel (Orlean 7). This illustration gives readers a gist of stormy weather in Florida. Orlean posits Fakahatchee as a wild swamp growing rare, endangered orchids (6). Readers can now understand that the Florida’s swampy land is fertile venue for the orchids to grow. Orlean explains that on examining the Everglades, Big Cypress Swamp, or the Loxahatchee, one can conclude that Florida is a “last of American frontier” (9). She elaborates to the readers that Florida is one of the few places in America, which has undeveloped land in its pristine beauty. Orlean confirms that the wild and the tame parts of Florida are “always in flux” (9). On the one hand, as the Everglades dries up, new buildings and highways spring up. However, on the other hand, the cleared land is very fertile, which allows vegetation to grow rapidly and maintaining the flux. This flux is also reflected in Orlean description of Florida as “always fomenting change, its natural landscapes just moments away from being drained and developed, its most manicured places only an instant away from collapsing back into jungle” (10). By painting the various facets of Florida, including its hot and stormy weather, and constant flux between swamps fertile for vegetation growth and developments on dried land, Orlean gives a vivid sense of having visited Florida to her readers.

In addition to painting a picture of Florida, Orlean shares personal experience, a literary nonfiction form, to keep her readers engaged. A personal experience is a composition based on the authors experience and reactions based on the views of the place visited (Minot 7). She elaborates on her personal experience by sharing her love and hate for Florida (Orlean 8-9). She enjoys the Art Deco hotels and the huge delis in Florida. However, she dreads jellyfish, the look of her hair in humidity and the unsettling Florida’s heat. In addition, the incongruities and paradoxes of Florida perplex Orlean (11). She explains that these incongruities are evident with Florida woods being filled with more native species of orchids than any place else in world (Orlean 11). However, there are also several “manmade jungles, the hothouses of Florida, full of astonishing flowers – created and multiplied in labs using test tubes and artificially multiplied to infinity” (Orlean 11). She is elaborating to her readers her perplexion regarding the fact that in spite of abundance of natural varieties of Orchids, Florida has several artificially grown orchids in labs. By relating her experience in various forms and places in Florida, readers can intensely realize Orlean’s reaction to Florida.

In addition to describing her experience in Florida, Orlean uses biographical sketch, a literary nonfiction form, to captivate her readers. A biographical sketch is a pictorial of a person as viewed by the author (Minot 7). Orlean describes Laroche as eccentric based on his extreme passion and then abandonment of various objects like turtles, Ice Age fossils, orchids, and fish (3-4). This demonstrates that Laroche is fickle in his attachments. Laroche’s passion for orchids blinds him to the law. He displays reckless abandonment to the consequences of his actions when he tries to steal rare orchids from the Fakahatchee preserve. Laroche’s immorality gets him caught and earns him prosecution for his crime. This proves the sketch which Laroche's employer, the Seminole tribe of Florida, has of him, a “Troublemaker and Crazy White Man” (Orlean 3). By painting a picture of Laroche and showing different facets of his personality, Orlean helps readers visualize the character of Laroche and gives them a feeling of having personally met him.

In conclusion, Orlean keeps her readers immersed by elegantly conveying her message in The Orchid Thief using various literary nonfiction forms, namely a sense of place, personal experience, and biographical sketch. She helps readers visualize Florida’s tapestry and climate and gives them a sense of Florida by painting a vivid picture with a long list of details including visual aspects, smells, and sounds, mixed with her own feelings and experiences. She integrates her personal experience with Laroche, his obsession with orchids, and his trial in Florida over the theft of orchids. She clearly outlines Laroche with a biographical sketch and introduces his eccentricities and character. By using these forms, she keeps the readers actively engaged and reading until the very end.




Works Cited
Orlean, Susan. The Orchid Thief. New York: Random, 1998.
Minot, Stephen. Literary Nonfiction: The Fourth Genre. NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003.